Counsellors Corner 

Hope

Brene' Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston where she has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy.

She has found that there are two prerequisites for high levels of hopefulness - Perseverance and Tenacity. She also found that those with highest levels of hope have had the most experiences of failure. Hope is not an emotion or how we feel. It's not a feeling of positivity -"I'm feeling hopeful"

What hope is, is a cognitive thinking approach. It's not how we feel, it's how we think, which is 100% teachable. Hope brings people together, having experienced struggles."

Hope is a function of struggle, requiring three abilities:

• To set goals
• Cultivate pathways
• Agency (I can do it!)

Brene' Brown - How to stay Hopeful.

As Christians, our hope is in Jesus Christ and his teachings, to be kind, compassionate, faithful, forgiving and courageous in the struggle - this is Hope.

Leanne Miller

College Counsellor